Going for Silver

Venue:
Location:
Details:

Carney Pools
Between Stafford and Rugeley, ST18 0XD
Mixed commercial fishery

The turning of the clocks and the drop in

temperature well and truly signals the beginning
of the winter. For many people this also involves
stowing away the gear for another 6 months until
the spring, however for those brave enough to
venture out in the colder weather, the rewards
are there to be had.
Today we are on Dragon Pool with three of the
venue regulars, who are going to target silvers in
three slightly different ways. Dave Pratt, Martin
Jones and Kevin Wood all are regulars on the
open match circuit at the pools and experienced
small fish anglers. They will be revealing some
of their secrets and hopefully help you put more
fish on the bank this winter.

C.A.R.E cic Nov 2012

Name:
Lives:

Dave Pratt
Rugeley

Tactics:

Concentrating on one line at 13m

Bait:

Caster and finely chopped worm

Name:
Lives:

Martin Jones
Armitage

Tactics:

Cage feeder and pole at 11m

Bait:

Caster, hemp and brown crumb

Name:
Lives:

Kevin Wood
Rugeley

Tactics:

2 lines at 11m and a 4m line on nearside shelf

Bait:

bread punch, pinkie, caster and silver x

Peg 15 Dragon Pool

Setting up on the nearside bank of Dragon Pool, Dave planned to target the open
water in the middle of the pool. Although Dave will begin a new line if things are
hard, he prefers to focus on one line fished reasonably long depending on the
conditions. Today Dave set up at 13m, using a light pencil style float with no
shoulder for maximise sensitivity. Dave makes his own floats which are available
from the lodge at the pools! The rig consisted of 0.12 trabucco mainline to a 0.10
hook length. He decided on a tubertini 808 barbless hook in a size 18. Dave
commented that with the fish not been particularly hook shy, no lighter gear should
be needed. Especially as with the numerous carp, tench and big bream in the area,
a little strength could be required. Dave uses a light solid elastic through a match
kit on his Browning Z9 which balances the rig. A balanced set up is key, especially
if you have any chance of landing better fish.
By fishing caster and chopped worm on the bottom, Dave
hoped to single out a better stamp of roach which would lead
to a better bag in a match situation. Dave started off potting a
250ml of finely chopped worm and caster, with a single
caster on the hook. Topping up the swim was initially done by
cad pot however this appeared to killing the swim. Dave has
found through experience that bream for example dont
always like bait raining down onto their heads when feeding.
Therefore he found that potting a big cup of bait and then
fishing it out until the bites dried up was the most effective
method on the day. Dave ended up catching fairly steady all
session with the final result being a 15lb bag of mainly roach
and a nice bream in just 3 hours, a great result!

Peg 10 Dragon Pool

Kev took a slightly different approach from the other side of the pool, rotating across three lines to try and maximise the
potential of the swim. The picture below shows the different swim he was using the bait applied to each.
By using different baits Kev has the advantage of seeing what
the fish prefer on the day. The ground bait line is likely to
attract the bream and possibly carp. However the caster line
is likely to be preferred by the roach. Caster tends to sort out
the better stamp of fish compared to maggot. However Kev
could run the risk of splitting shoals.
Using a very similar set up to Dave, with 0.12 line to a 0.10
hook length and 18 hook, Kev began the session on the 4m
line. He fed this with several small balls of bread crumb and
fished punch over the top. The roach often patrol the nearside
shelf and Kev was soon catching fish. He quickly put 12 roach
into the net however they were small, so decided to move to
the longer lines. He fed the ground bait line with Silver X
mixed with some pinkies. He initially fed the long line with
250ml pots of bait and topped up via cad pot.
From the off Kev began to catch a better stamp of roach and was soon into a steady rhythm. It was interesting watching the
two different approaches as both Kev and Dave found their own styles of feeding worked on the day. Kev strung out his shot
and managed to catch several fish on the drop feeding caster and hemp. Kev decided to switch top kits to lighter elastic as
he was bumping a few smaller roach off. However no sooner had the top kit been changed, Kev connected with a decent fish
which took him 15mins to land. Although only a few pounds, and not the target today, it shows that with balanced tackle carp
can be landed on the lightest of gear.

Kev went on to catch roach and even the odd perch on the long line. He found both the ground bait and pure caster lines
produced well, although the bigger roach were been caught on a caster hook bait. Not long before calling it a day, Kev
connected with another decent fish which looked to be much bigger. Unfortunately it came off close to the net after a length
battle.
In all Kev weighed in just over 7lb or roach, along with a 3lb carp and a few perch in a short 3 hour session. Had Kev not
spent almost an hour playing carp, he estimates he would have caught close to 15lbs of silvers.
Peg 7 Dragon Pool
Martin set up almost opposite to Daves peg, again looking
to target the open water. Peg 7 is a popular peg on the
pool, but as a very uneven bottom so can be tricky to fish
accurately! Martin took a different approach to the others in
setting up a cage feeder and a 11m pole line. Martin used
a selection of hemp, bread, caster and ground bait. Both
Martin and Kev selected a ground bait suited to silver fish,
with a low fishmeal content, to discourage carp. Martin
began casting the feeder into the middle of the lake while
beginning to feed to pole line by catapult.
Martin had little luck on the feeder and seemed to be being
plagued by small fish. A change to the pole was in order.
Martin was using a slightly heavier set up to Dave and
Kev, with a 0.14 mainline to a 0.12 hook link. Martin was
primarily targeting big roach and bream.
Martin strung his shot out to try and catch some fish up in
the water, often the location of the pools larger roach.

Martin was getting plenty of bites on both the maggot and caster however was struggling to connect with them. The fish
in Martins swim seemed of a much smaller stamp and appeared to be simply toying with the bait. Rather than receiving
positive bites, the float would gently dip and stop just above the water.
Martin decided to adopt a more positive approach, feeding several balls of ground bait laced with caster and hemp. This
seemed to work and resulted in a better stamp of fish. On one retrieve the caster ended up well up the hook link, a sign
Martin commented that they were having it properly. A bream followed soon after and Martin ended up with a good net of
silvers. The swim slowed again towards the end and a change to maggot revealed a likely culprit, lots of perch! Perhaps
theses were what had been plaguing Martins swim all day. Never the less, a good days fishing was had! Martin went on
to win a match down in Worcester the following day, using a pole line at a similar distance and rigs.

Martin ended up again with a nice bag of roach and a few skimmers for
an estimated 5 or 6lbs. Martin caught all of the fish on caster and
maggot, but did try the hemp which didnt work today. The pictures here
show what good sport can be had, even at this time year. Hopefully this
has inspired you to come and have a go. Just wrap up warm!

Lastly a big than you to the

guys for catching some quality
fish and taking the time to share
some of their tactics!

Article by Brad Parkes

Carney Pools Fishery
Land off Bishton Lane
Wolseley Bridge
Stafford
ST18 0XD
07999 462499